What we know about storytelling strategies

Source: WARC Best Practice, September 2017

Downloaded from WARC

This article provides guidance and reading on storytelling strategies, or the fashioning of events into a
meaningful, relatable story for customers to identify with and remember.

Storytelling as a creative approach involves following the structure of traditional stories – it needs
characters, a plot and a resolution.
It is always tempting for a brand to try to persuade rather than simply narrate but this ultimately
detracts from their potential to communicate.
Narratives are built consistently: it must travel across touchpoints and channels, meaning that the
brand need not be at the forefront of the creative, just facilitate it.
Research in the UK shows that this hybrid story is particularly potent online where people are
actively seeking 'real' stories, ones where lives and behaviours change.
Just as Twitter enabled brands to have a direct conversation with audiences, new arrivals such as
Splash, Knowme and Yubl are offering platforms where rich brand stories can be co-created and
distributed.

Storytelling is designed to create relationships and gently persuade an audience into suspending their
cynicism, to ‘buy in’ to an emotion or point of view. A good story has character, plot and resolution it
will also mirror the experiences and emotions of the audience in order to engage them. Brand
stories will focus on the product, the vision or the user and digital channels are particularly highly
rated for user-related narrative.

Definition
Storytelling as a creative approach involves following the structure of traditional stories – it needs characters, a
plot and a resolution. Storytelling is often used as a way to drive emotional appeal. More broadly, brand
storytelling is the act of building stories around a brand.

Key insights
1. A story needs character, plot and emotion

Before looking at channel and strategy it is important to understand why and how stories work. Stories in any
format require great characters, plot, conflict and resolution. The best stories allow the audience to participate,
to engage and allow themselves to become immersed in the emotion and narrative. It is always tempting for a
brand to try to persuade rather than simply narrate but this ultimately detracts from their potential to
communicate.

Read more in: Five rules for storytelling and Four things about #stories

2. Brands can achieve cultural resonance by tapping into archetypal stories

Archetypes are age-old patterns present in the collective human unconscious – characters and storylines that
are highly resonant across cultures. Successful brands such as Nike or GoPro have built brand stories on
specific archetypes to tap into the unconscious, aid memory encoding and have mass appeal. Justin Bieber’s
rise to social media sensation and global brand was achieved by his manager crafting an archetype-rich
narrative across social media.

Read more in: The Stockton Slap and other stories

3. Storytelling is a cross-channel, multisensory discipline

An effective storytelling strategy is visual and visceral as well as verbal. Image, colour, sound, texture and scent
all contribute to telling your story and brands are well advised to ensure that these elements are aligned across
touchpoints to create a rich, consistent narrative. This 360 degree thinking, somewhat ironically, means the
brand doesn’t have to be right at the forefront of the creative, it can facilitate the story rather than star in it.

Read more in: Eight principles of storytelling

4. Successful storytelling subtly persuades

For decades there has been a perceived distinction between creative / emotional strategies and rational /
persuasive ones. As a recent global study of brand storytelling shows, emotional work that is relevant to the
brand is naturally persuasive. The Lost Dog story used in the US by Budweiser scored brilliantly for emotion,
but failed to persuade, it did not link strongly back to the product and the emotion failed to transfer to the brand.

Read more in: Convey emotion through storytelling

5. Digital is a powerful channel for telling ‘real’ brand stories

There are three main types of brand story; the functional product demonstration, the vision or purpose of the
organisation and a hybrid of the two that demonstrates the potential of the brand to help consumers achieve a
goal or purpose. Research in the UK shows that this hybrid story is particularly potent online where people are
actively seeking ‘real’ stories, ones where lives and behaviours change. Storytelling is an interesting example of
how digital advertising has evolved from an activation channel into one that delivers emotion and engagement.

Both financial services provider Charles Schwab and Australian superannuation provider HESTA have
experienced success engaging consumers in ‘low-interest’ categories with compelling real-life storytelling videos
online. Starbucks has moved into brand journalism, including video and podcasts, with its ‘Upstanders’ series
highlighting ordinary people taking positive community action and distributed via its owned assets, paid digital
and digital partnerships.

Read more in: Telling stories to the digital generation, Why online video plays well for Charles Schwab,
Rethinking retirement with storytelling, CX and Starbucks spreads positivity with brand journalism

6. Shared experience creates powerful stories

Brands are encouraged to look at their own history, vision and aspirations in order to craft an authentic
storytelling strategy. That is not however to imply that a brand should only be inward looking in how it creates
that story. Research from the US shows that a powerful emotional connection is formed when a story mirrors
the emotions of the audience, it becomes a shared experience. These past experiences are often hard to
research but the investment in doing so pays dividends.

Read more in: The other side of the story

7. Co-creation of stories amplifies content sharing

Mobile apps have taken a substantial step forward in terms of their capacity to offer complex, rich media brand
experiences. Just as Twitter enabled brands to have a direct conversation with audiences, new arrivals such as
Splash, Knowme and Yubl are offering platforms where rich brand stories can be co-created and distributed.
This innovation offers brands exciting new ways to engage with their audience, it also has the potential to
significantly enhance the likelihood of peer-to-peer content sharing.

Read more in: Lowdown: Storytelling apps

8. Virtual reality is a potentially powerful medium for storytelling

Virtual reality (VR) has potential to add richness to storytelling, enabling consumers to be in the story and part of
it rather than just a viewer. The New York Times magazine is pioneering VR for both journalistic and brand
stories, such as a film enabling people to experience being a child in a refugee camp, which enhanced emotion
and empathy.

Read more in: Through the looking glass: The virtual reality lessons all brand should heed

More on this topic

WARC Topic page: Storytelling

WARC Case studies: Creative Approach: Storytelling

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